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Hatch

Export Lump Screening Study

Project Summary

Project

This pre-feasibility (FEL-2) study investigated available options for adding a lump rescreening plant (LRP) to an existing iron ore export terminal in Whyalla, Australia. The LRP screens the lump iron ore product to achieve export specifications. This project provided Hatch with the first opportunity to use, test, and validate Bentley’s MineCycle Material Handling software after participating in the syndicated development of the product.

Solution

To fit the LRP into the constraints of an existing brownfield operation, the team created a terrain model of the facility using Google Earth Professional and overlaid a high-resolution image on the terrain model. Hatch used information from 2D drawings of the mine site’s rail unloading and ship loading facilities, covered storage areas, transfer towers, and conveyor systems to recreate existing plant infrastructure. Importing this project terrain into MineCycle Material Handling saved time normally spent on requests to receive terrain models.

Outcome

The flexibility of Bentley’s bulk material handling software enabled designers to provide clear designs to the client in a relatively short time when compared with traditional methods, reducing resource costs by 40 percent and improving efficiency by 33 percent. Optioneering the design of the new LRP helped Hatch to perform clash detection early in the layout phase and extract high level bills of quantities for estimating. The final consensus model created with MineCycle Material Handling allowed for the transfer of data to a leading conveyor design package, which in turn provided technically validated data in a full 3D model providing support development and testing of options.

Software

The 3D model powered by MineCycle Material Handling provides Hatch an excellent visualization tool for communication with non-technical stakeholders. Moreover, using ProjectWise allows the geographically dispersed team to access accurate, real-time data and share input. By incorporating global response and the application of new workflows in a 3D environment, Hatch successfully developed a test case showcasing the ease of use and functionality of Bentley’s MineCycle Material Handling software.

“We estimate that MineCycle Material Handling will help us to produce FEL-1 and FEL-2 layout designs 20 to 40 percent faster. When combined with the layout productivity gains, enabled by the equipment library and other capabilities, our conceptual design process will be much more efficient.”